Bob the Dog - A rare breed of Belgian
Airhead occasionally featured on the NBC & CBS talk shows LATE NIGHT
/ LATE SHOW WITH
DAVID LETTERMAN during the 1980s & 1990s.

The personal pet of comedian David Letterman, Bob the Dog (who
was never seen) had a video-camera strapped to his body so that when
he moved about, the TV viewers could see a "dog's eye" view of the
world.

Bob ran up and down stairs, jumped on and off objects and
otherwise created a whirlwind of canine acrobatics for the late
night TV audience.

On David Letterman's final appearance on THE TONIGHT SHOW with
Johnny Carson on May 15, 1992, Dave told the below story about his
beloved pet, Bob.

Carson:

...When you came
on here in the early years, you used to talk about -- I hate
to bring this up, because the same thing might have happened
to your dog that happened to Condoli's cat -- your dog Bob.

Letterman:

No. My dog is 40
now.

Carson:

You talked about
that dog a lot, Bob.

Letterman:

Yeah. Bob passed
away.

Carson:

I didn't know
that. I'm sorry.

Letterman:

Well, it's a long
time ago. That's what happens with pets. They bring you a lot
of joy and a lot of happiness while they're around.

Carson:

Yes, they do.

Letterman::

But, yeah, I used
to talk a lot about Bob, because I loved the animal the way
pet owners love their animals. He was a -- I remember I told
you on the show he was a rare breed. He was a Belgian airhead.

Carson:

Belgian airhead.
I do remember that. But lovable.

Letterman:

And I was thinking
about that the other day, and there was one summer about five
or six years ago in Connecticut, and it was hotter than hell,
just unbelievably hot, and when it gets hot back east and in
the Midwest there's also that oppressive humidity.

So I get up
early, and I don't know what to do, so I think I better clean
out the refrigerator, get rid of the perishables, you know,
and I come across a two-pound load of ground beef, and you
could tell that -- you know, if I was a doctor I'd want to run
tests on it. It had gone.

So I just, okay, let's get rid of
that. And I go out and I run some errands, and I come home,
and there's Bob kind of sitting around the house, and I see
the wrapper for the two pounds of ground beef there on the
kitchen floor, and I think, oh, my God.

The damn dog has
ingested two pounds of rotten beef. And so right away I called
the vet, and I tell him what has happened, and the vet says,
"Well, you know, dogs have cast iron constitutions," and, oh,
I'm breathing a sigh of relief now.

But then he says what vets
will always say to you, he says, "Yeah, but, you know, if it
was my dog, I'd want to get that beef out of him." And I said,
"Great, I'll bring him right over," you know, and he says,
"Well, sorry. We're closed. But you can do something. You can
get it out yourself."

And I think, oh, what is this, surgery
in the garage? He says, "Give him some hydrogen peroxide and
it will bring it all up." He said, "Give him two tablespoons
of hydrogen peroxide and everything will be fine."

So me and
Bob go out into the yard, and I got the hydrogen peroxide and
I got the tablespoons right here, I got Bob in a headlock, and
I'm ready to pour the hydrogen peroxide, and for the next 90
minutes it's collegiate wrestling. Oh, it's almost a pin,
there's an escape, there's a take-down.

The dog won't drink
the hydrogen peroxide, so I go back inside and I pour out the
contents of a bottle of Windex with the big pump sprayer on
it, I pour the hydrogen peroxide in the bottle, and I get a
good one on him, and I squirt about a quart of that stuff down
Bob.

So now I'm like a tourist at Old Faithful, you know, I'm
thinking, do I have time to go to the car to get the camera? I
don't know. It's gonna blow any second here. I don't want to
miss this.

And finally, it works, unbelievably, and there it
is, there's the ground beef, and it looks just almost like it
did earlier in the day, except now it's got quite a head on it
now.

Carson:

That's a great
story. We'll be right back. Stay where you are.

TRIVIA NOTE: On Letterman's
inaugural "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment in 1982, a dog named Mugsy
sneezed and answered a phone. Former Letterman writer Merrill Markoe
created the Stupid Pet Tricks back in 1980 for Letterman's
short-lived NBC morning show. Dial 1-888-PET-TRIK or (212) 975-5950
if you have a stupid animal act or write "Stupid Pet/Human Tricks"
Late Show with David Letterman, 1697 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.